Denouncing Sen. Clinton, Coulter ignored her own "plantation" remarks

Ann Coulter attacked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for her remarks in which she said that Republicans had run the House of Representatives "like a plantation," even though Coulter had previously used the same metaphor to attack liberals.

On the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter assailed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) for her January 16 remarks to a predominantly black audience, in which she said that Republicans had run the House of Representatives "like a plantation." But Coulter herself has previously used a "plantation" metaphor to attack liberals.

When host Neil Cavuto asked Coulter to comment on Clinton's January 16 remarks, she replied: "What a surprise that Hillary would be mentioning plantations on Martin Luther King Day in a black church. It's a crazy coincidence." Coulter called Clinton's comments "moronic," asking rhetorically, "[I]s that the one thing plantations were missing? A cloture vote?" She later asserted that Clinton's statements were "just the same old cliché. It's just Democrats once again running to the blacks whenever they're in trouble. You know, race-baiting on Martin Luther King Day. I think people are getting sick of it."

But as Media Matters for America previously noted, Coulter has a history of making racially charged remarks, including an attack on liberals that featured a "plantation" metaphor. On the December 8, 2004, edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Coulter said that because liberals "feel like they have blacks on the plantation, they can say whatever they like" about black conservatives:

COULTER: They [liberals] feel like they have blacks on the plantation, they can say whatever they like. And, interestingly, you don't even hear Hispanic conservatives attacked in the same way that people like [Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice and [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas are, and -- and, I mean, just look at it. Look at what the Democrats' minority leader in the Senate said this weekend. He praises [Supreme Court Justice Antonin] Scalia as "Oh, he's one smart guy, and his opinions, can't dispute the logic, though I disagree with them," and then he says of Clarence Thomas "He's an embarrassment. His opinions -- they're just poorly written."

[...]

O'REILLY: Isn't it loathsome, though, to use bias attacks to try to demean people with whom you disagree with politically? That's just loathsome, isn't it?

COULTER: Yes, although I will note -- I mean, I haven't particularly gone after the political cartoons. I think political cartoons are different. What I'm saying is that the serious thinkers, the political consultants, the people -- the pundits on TV, their attacks -- and the Democratic senators and representatives -- their attacks on black conservatives are instantly to revert to the most old-fashioned racist attacks. "Oh, yes, dummy." "Black chick. She's a dummy."

From the January 17 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: Ann, to you first. What do you make of these remarks?

COULTER: What a surprise that Hillary would be mentioning plantations on Martin Luther King Day in a black church. It's a crazy coincidence.

CAVUTO: Was it insensitive?

COULTER: I think it's moronic more than insensitive. I mean, is that the one thing plantations were missing? A cloture vote? This is how, you know, seventh-graders argue because they have a limited repertoire at that age. You know, you don't go around comparing everything to a plantation.

[...]

CAVUTO: You know, Ann, am I crazy to think that maybe Hillary Clinton was crazy like a fox? That, you know, there were some in her base -- liberal base who were getting ticked off by this moderate move or whatever you want to call it, and maybe by making the statement she did, that was a calculated move to sort of reassure the base.

COULTER: I don't think that's really a sign of Democratic or liberal muscularity. It's just the same old cliché. It's just Democrats once again running to the blacks whenever they're in trouble. You know, race-baiting on Martin Luther King Day. I think people are getting sick of it. And I would think most of all -- well not most of all, I think everyone is getting sick of this watering down of what slavery and what plantations were. They didn't have enough representatives on congressional committees in slavery days? Was that the problem with slavery?

ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

Our research section features in-depth media analysis, original reports illustrating skewed or inadequate coverage of important issues, thorough debunking of conservative falsehoods that find their way into coverage and other special projects from Media Matters' research department.

On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Media should take note of Pruitt’s climate science denial, his deep ties to the energy industries he will be charged with regulating, and his long record of opposition to EPA efforts to reduce air and water pollution and combat climate change.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked -- or considered -- nearly a dozen people who have worked in right-wing media, including talk radio, right-wing news sites, Fox News, and conservative newspapers, to fill his administration. And Trump himself made weekly guest appearances on Fox for a number of years while his vice president used to host a conservative talk radio show.